Paragraph Issues

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[Lightening]

I seem to be having trouble with separating the paragraphs in my posts.  I can get it all looking fine and then when I hit save, everything sort of bunches up together again (ie there is no line between the paragraphs).

Has anyone had this happen in wordpress and know what I'm doing wrong or how I can fix it???

It's driving me batty!!!

[KirstenL4W]

I haven't had a problem with this in my posts, but on my Blogroll page I wanted the spacing between sections a certain way, and I can't seem to get it right.  Since I'm just importing my links from blogrolling, I did that page in the code and not visual editor, and to get the spacing neither a hard break < / b > nor adding paragraphs (two lines of < p >    < / p >) is working.  I'm also eager to hear anyone's suggestions.

[Snoskred]

I wrote about this previously. Wordpress is doing what it is supposed to do there. Spaces between the paragraphs is done via the CSS code.

Yes, I know it is unusual and takes getting used to. It is one reason I use a lot of the header codes when I am writing - to separate the paragraphs more.

Yours is set to 1.5em Lightening - if you don't feel like this is enough of a gap let me know and we'll increase it. For me, reading on your blog, it is perfect.

You just have to remember that wordpress is going to take those extra spaces out. It is supposed to do that.

[Lightening]

It's doing it some of the time and not other times though.  I must be doing something differently some of the time without realising it.

The spacing between each line AND the spacing between each paragraph is exactly the same so there's no differentiation between the 2 (that I can see).  Is this what you're saying is supposed to happen Snos?

[Lani]

Lightning, just having a look at where the line problems are, it looks to me like you cut and pasted from Word?  Have you done that?  Because when you do it pastes in junk styles as a span and that stuffs up your normal spacing.

[Lightening]

Lightning, just having a look at where the line problems are, it looks to me like you cut and pasted from Word?  Have you done that?  Because when you do it pastes in junk styles as a span and that stuffs up your normal spacing.

That particular post I cut and pasted from an email.  Not sure if my problems other times have been from cut and pasting.  I'll pay more attention and see.

[Snoskred]

Wordpress puts your paragraphs within a code that looks like this -

Code:

<p>all your words here and when the paragraph ends it puts</p>
<p>your next paragraph here</p>
<p>following paragraph here</p>

What the CSS does is puts a 1.5em space between each paragraph and that is how you get the spaces.

I'm fairly sure anytime you hit the enter key in the post you're going to create a paragraph, even if you just put one line of text or maybe a link..

If you did copy them in from your email program that may well be the cause. I always paste text from an email, website, or word document into a blank editpad (or notepad if you have that) text file, select it all, and copy it again in order to get rid of any "styles" or extra junky stuff like Lani mentioned which can interfere with your spacing or make stuff bold or italic or even makes it in a different font from the standard.

[guera]

Yes! I have found when I cut and paste anything from word or email etc it ends up with all these <span> and <o:p> tags that mean nothing to me, but make it look funny. 

I was just going into the code editor section and stripping out all those tags, but your suggestion, Snoskred sounds like a much easier way of doing it.

[Lightening]

I still seem to be having problems with this.  I've tried copying and pasting via notepad...... still happening.

However, it's also happening with stuff that hasn't got anything copied and pasted.

I've tried asking around and 1 suggestion was that it was one of my plug ins causing it.  But Snos, is that likely given no-one else seems to be having this problem?

The other suggestion I was given was to turn off the whatever it's called editor.  But then I get no smileys!!!!  *sob*

I'm going crazy.  To give you a couple of examples of where it is happening...

[url=http://www.lighteningonline.com/2008/02/09/smiley-saturday-9/]Smiley Saturday   The title "Why God Made Mums" WAS on it's own line (with a line break above it) when I hit publish and now it's all crammed up again.

How Egg-Citing[/url] . This post has NOTHING that has been copied and pasted.  When I wrote it paragraph 2 had an empty line above it (which went in automatically when I hit enter) but on publishing it, it has disappeared.  Then under the photo, the list of vegies were all separated out as if they were their own paragraphs (each green text being the start of a new paragraph).  The final paragraph under it has also bunched up and not spaced out.

This is driving me insane....and taking me longer to try and fix (unsuccesfully a lot of the time) than my actual blog posts are taking me to write.   

[Anonymum]

Do you mean the Rich Text Editor? If that's the one I never have mine on and whilst you don't see the smilies when you're doing the post, they are there when you preview or publish.
I had this problem for a while and I found it was because I had double spacing where I didn't know there was. Not suggesting your silly, don't get me wrong, but a lot of the time I just clicked on the end of the sentence and hit delete which bought the text back by one space and it was ok. You've probably tried that, but I thought I'd mention it just in case. Sometimes it's the little things that drive us nuts...
If I have the cat by the wrong end just ignore me and I'll go away
 

[Snoskred]

Ok Lightening - here is the solution.

This is the code as it currently is seen on your blog -

Code:

<font size="4"><strong><font color="#ff00ff">Why God made Mums --</font></strong></font>

I'm assuming you put all that code in, right?

Rather than use that, use the header options. They have automatic spacing around them, so they won't bunch up. Plus it is neater.

SO now it looks like this -

Code:

<h3><font color="#ff00ff">Why God made Mums --</font></h3>

Use the header tags to space out your paragraphs and put headings in - it is better not only for your writing but leads readers through the post with headlines, and it also is good for SEO. The header tags are in the drop down menu that says "format" - I like to use Header 3 mostly myself.

With the eggciting one, you need to use <p> - paragraph tags. I am guessing you switched back and forward between the visual and the code editor when you wrote this? When you switch, you lose the <p> tags which are already there. So if you have put paragraphs in, you will lose them if you switch to code and then back to visual.

My advice is pick one or the other. Either only use visual, or only use code. The latter means learning a lot of code, so go with visual. When you press enter in visual it automatically puts the paragraph code in for you. But if you want to be doubly sure, or if you have switched back and forward, highlight the text and then select "paragraph" from the same menu you get the header codes - format.

I hope that helps.

I fixed them both for you, took just a couple of minutes. 

[Lani]

I think Lightening uses the TinyMCE editor plugin.  I have it but don't use it.  I switched it on but it was so messy and slowed my page load so much, I deactivated it almost straight away.  (So I'm no help.)

[Luke]

If you are using Safari then stop, I've found I've had this problem in Safari, and not in Firefox (so try that).

[Lightening]

Ok Lightening - here is the solution.

This is the code as it currently is seen on your blog -

Code:

<font size="4"><strong><font color="#ff00ff">Why God made Mums --</font></strong></font>

I'm assuming you put all that code in, right?

Rather than use that, use the header options. They have automatic spacing around them, so they won't bunch up. Plus it is neater.

SO now it looks like this -

Code:

<h3><font color="#ff00ff">Why God made Mums --</font></h3>

Use the header tags to space out your paragraphs and put headings in - it is better not only for your writing but leads readers through the post with headlines, and it also is good for SEO. The header tags are in the drop down menu that says "format" - I like to use Header 3 mostly myself.

With the eggciting one, you need to use <p> - paragraph tags. I am guessing you switched back and forward between the visual and the code editor when you wrote this? When you switch, you lose the <p> tags which are already there. So if you have put paragraphs in, you will lose them if you switch to code and then back to visual.

My advice is pick one or the other. Either only use visual, or only use code. The latter means learning a lot of code, so go with visual. When you press enter in visual it automatically puts the paragraph code in for you. But if you want to be doubly sure, or if you have switched back and forward, highlight the text and then select "paragraph" from the same menu you get the header codes - format.

I hope that helps.

I fixed them both for you, took just a couple of minutes. 

Thanks Snos.  I noticed it was looking better.  Was thinking maybe I went mad but thought maybe my fairy blogmother had been waving her magic wand.     Yeah, I do tend to switch between the 2 editors and I did manually resize there.  Will try to remember to use header tags.  Yeah, I don't really want to go to code cos I lose my smileys (well, I'd have to learn how to manually enter them).  You're right.  Too much stuff for me to learn right now.   

I can use the header tag for sizing and then change the colour????  Is that okay?

What do I do when I want to copy and paste code then?  Like the code for Mr Linky.  I think it needs to be put into the code view.  Is that right?  Is it best to do that first rather than switch once I've started composing the post?

Anonymum - to be honest I am a bit silly at times.     Wordpress is all very new to me.  I don't get offended by people making simple suggestions.  Like you said, it can be the little things that drive us nuts.  And sometimes we can assume someone knows the basics but that's not always the case.

Yes, I do use tinyMCE at the moment.  Maybe I need to learn how not to???

Luke - I am using firefox but thanks for the suggestion.

You're all so helpful.  Thank you so much.  I REALLY appreciate it.   Fingers crossed I'm getting there (or will) with this issue.

[Lani]

I don't think you need to get rid of TinyMCE.  For me it would just be an added thing to learn and I'm already comfortable with HTML code (I had a personal web page in the 90s) so it didn't seem worth it.  (Incidentally, I switch between the visual editor and the code view all the time.)

It's really about whatever works best for you, and it is also in some ways theme dependent.  Perhaps if someone has a good tutorial on how to get the most out of TinyMCE that would be helpful.  Doesn't it have the capacity to use the classes from your stylesheet to format your post within the visual editor?  Or am I displaying my ignorance?

[Snoskred]

It would be better to put the code in first, then switch back to visual to enter your text.

But the secret tip is - do whatever you like, then right before you're ready to post, go through and highlight each paragraph, and then select paragraph from the drop down format box.

I would make the text the right color first, then do the header tag.